The Regional Group Cologne and all interested parties meet on the topic of TouchLab Terminal.

The Cologne regional group is meeting to discuss the TouchLab Terminal.

Dear colleagues,

I would like to invite you to the next meeting of the Cologne regional group. We will be meeting at Deutschlandradio Cologne, which has kindly made a room available to us.

The topic this time is: free audio software for real-time streaming and synchronous collaboration of musicians via the Internet. Our guest is conductor Ulrich Pöhl from TouchLab Terminal and director of the Dutch ensemble Insomnio. TouchLab TERMINAL is a network audio software developed by the ensemble Insomnio that enables high-quality audio streaming with extremely low latency. It allows sound engineers and musicians to perform synchronized rehearsals and decentralized music productions in real time - without external servers. TERMINAL runs on Linux mini-PCs and is compatible with all class-compliant audio interfaces, making it a flexible and sustainable solution for professional applications.

Using the example of the online concert “Tempestas in memorian”, a contemporary composition by the English composer James Wood, Ulrich will show us how the system works, what is required, what hardware and software is needed and how it was realized.

“The great storm”, as the play is also called, tells the story of the natural disaster of 1674, when a violent storm caused the nave of the basilica in Utrecht to collapse. It was realized in August last year after much preparation and rehearsal. At four locations, Utrecht, Blackburn, Berlin and Düsseldorf, large pipe organs were played synchronously, all organs were closely miked so that individual works and stops could be recorded in separate tracks, the organs were brought into tune centrally in real time, the organists were connected to the conductor via headphones, who conducted acoustically. The recordings came together in Utrecht, where they were mixed and streamed to the Internet. The administrator sat in a camper van somewhere in France and controlled the various streams from there. Large loudspeakers were installed in the church in Utrecht itself, which played the organ recordings from the three other churches live. This meant that the audience was able to experience the entire event, the organ on site and the organs from Blackburn, Berlin and Düsseldorf playing simultaneously in presence at two sold-out concerts. At the same time, more than 1000 listeners worldwide also followed the streaming live.

During the campaign, I was allowed to record the large Mühleisen organ at St. Antonius in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel, where the organist was Dominik Susteck.

Later, the entire work was also broadcast on Deutschlandradio. For this, the organ in Utrecht had to be re-recorded as the sound there was naturally influenced by the loudspeakers. James Wood had to remix all the existing tracks accordingly.

The programme that was broadcast by Deutschlandradio last September as part of the series “Atelier neuer Musik” gave me the idea of organizing the meeting at Deutschlandradio's premises this time. Many thanks to Jürgen and Sebastian for making a studio available to us.

The date:

Friday 11.04.2025, 17:00, Deutschlandradio, Raderberggürtel 40, Cologne

Please register by 7.4. as the number of places is limited.

See you again, I'm very excited.

Best regards

Christoph Hilser

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)